Hot Bucket
by alimination602
Summary: Omega Squad during their downtime on Couresant.     Republic Commando Series


Hot Bucket

"Straight Flush" Fi chuckled as he slammed his cards down on the table, savoring Niner's expression as he threw himself back in his chair, his eyes shielded by his open palms. "Come to new buir" Fi shunted all the chips in his arms towards him, rebuilding them into stacks.

Niner flopped down onto the table. "You cheated you dirty chaaker"

"Oh quit whining, you could always play again?" Fi smirked.

"Oh you bet I'm goanna" Niner collected the cards back into the deck, shuffling them ready for the next round. "I'm taking you too the cleaners, clone boy" Niner smirked. He threw his feet onto the poker table shuffling the cards, flicking them in his hands.

The door to the barracks slammed open, the metal crashing against the hardened cement of the wall, the bright light that pierced through the cracks, illuminating the interior of the darkened room, blocked by a figure that stood in the doorway, a cape draping down their back and a hood covering their eyes. The cards Niner was shuffling flew into the air, and ended up skewered across the floor. As one the four commandos grabbed their DC-17's they always kept close by and snapped towards the open door, their weapon sights trained on the target, the targets body brightened by the four red dots centered on their chest.

Niner saw past the figure to see an accomplice standing outside the barracks, their face shrouded by a cloak just as the first. A brown boot stepped onto the concrete floor, unphased by the stature of the four soldiers or the weapons aimed directly into their heart, their red rose lips no longer shrouded by darkness. "Are you sure you should be pointing those at me…." The creature stepped towards Darman; he noticeably straightened as they approached. With just a few feet between them the figure pushed the barrel of his gun to the side. Taking the sides of their hood in their hands they flipped it over their head, light blonde hair with a touch of fiery red cascaded down their back, now free from their fabric imprisonment. "….after all I am your commanding officer" Darman stood frozen. "General Tur-mukan" At her name the rest of commandos lowered their weapons and stood at attention, saluting. Etain giggled at the sight of the four enormous men rising at her appearance. "At ease soldiers" 'Always wanted to say that' She said to herself.

Again as one the commandos put their safeties on and lowered their DC's. "Greetings ma'am" Darman was the first to welcome her, no surprise there.

Etain chuckled to herself. "Darman, I asked you to call me Etain"

Darman snickered to himself. "Of course, ma'am" Etain brushed away the lewd comment, walking past him towards the other commandos. "So boys, playing poker again?"

"Hey, if it kills time, Etain" Fi replied. She turned back to Darman.

"You see Darman; some soldiers know how to address their commanding officer"

"Yeah Darman, you should really learn to respect your superiors" Fi snickered.

"Di'kut" Darman grumbled to himself.

"Hey poker…" The figure that stood guard outside stepped into the light of the overhead lamp that bathed the barracks in golden light. "Room for another player?" The commandos really wondered if Jusik really was a Jedi sometimes, the way he acted it was like he was just another one of Kal Skirata's Mandalorian offspring, not the cute innocent Jedi like Etain made herself out to be. "Sure sir, if Fi can learn to shuffle cards"

Etain stepped forward. "If I may make a suggestion?"

"Sure, Ma'am"

"All we need is your helmets" That sparked an interest from the Commandos.

Omega scavenged through their few possessions in search of their helmets. They sat on their bunks, their helmets resting on their bunks, Etain sitting between them. "Now I'm going to mix your helmets up, you're going to put them on and you have to guess whose helmet it is"

"How do we do that?" Niner asked.

"By smell, ner vod" Fi remarked.

Etain raised her hand, focusing her energies as she lifted the four helmets into the air, mixing the helmets into a random order. "Close your eyes" Reluctantly the four commandos closed their eyes. Etain watched closely as she dropped the helmets onto the commandos. "Ok, any guesses?"

"Yeah I've got Darman's bucket" Fi called out within moments.

Etain was stunned. "How did you ever get that so fast?" He turned to her, his face now obscured by the familiar T shaped visor she had grown to see as a symbol of security, save for her encounter with Ghez Hokan.

"You forgot to turn off our ID tags; Darman's serial number is scrolling across my visor". Etains face erupted into a shade of dark red. "Sorry"

"It's ok ma'am, we got 'em" The commandos lifted their buckets off, reached inside and removing a small grey cylinder from each of them. The power packs. Laying them in the center once again Etain proceeded to shuffle them once more.

Dropping the helmets on their heads once again, Darman and the others were met with the familiar sight of their T shaped visors restricting their views. Only this time all of the readouts and systems that normally over powered their senses were gone. "Ok, any guesses?"

"I don't know, but it's a little cramped in here" Fi commented. "We're clone's, Di'kut. We're genetically identical" Niner complained.

"All I know is I'm sniffing O'Dea Fi right here" Everyone broke out into an array of laughter.

Etain smiled, "It's amazing how these men designed to be a killing machine's can find humor in practically every situation" She thought to herself.

"Correct, ok next round"

"Cool let me try" Jusik stepped forward, dropping the helmet of the Mandalorian armor Kal' buir had given him. Etain mixed the five helmets together once again, dropping each one onto a random Commando or Jedi. Everyone sniffed their helmet, lost in each others individual aromas. "Darman" Jusik called out.

"Hey! No force powers" Etain called out at Jusik. He pulled the helmet off his head.

"How'd you know?" Etain raised the other four helmets into the air, ensuring that she made her point. "Ok, I get the point".

"Hey Jusik, you ever thought of using that Jedi 'Sight' trick to read Etains diary at night?" A vein pulsed on Etains forehead as she forced herself to contain her anger at Fi's wise crack. "I'll bet it's full of Darman" Etain clenched her fist, the helmet slamming down on top of Fi's head. Any attempt to pull the helmet free was met with grunts as he attempted to dislodge the unrelenting restraint.

The door to the barracks flung open once again. Like clock work all four commandos grabbed their decces, aiming them at the now open doorway. The person in the door, Kal Skirata, stood firm, the presence of the DC's not fazing him in the least. "Nice to see you boys as sharp as ever"

"Kal' buir" Omega squad called out.

"Hi Kal" Jusik smiled.

"You too Jusik" Kal stepped forward, encapsulated the boy in a crushing grandfatherly hug. "So what are you boys up to this time?"

"We're trying out a new game Etain taught us" Skirata looked past him, watching Etain as she rose from the bunk. "Hi Kal"

"Et'ika" He crushed her in another hug, looking over her shoulder he watched as Fi tried in vain to pull the helmet clean from his skull, with the help of Darman gripping the rim of the helmet. "What happened to Fi?"

Darman turned to his 'father'. "Stuck helmet".

"Oh for the love of….." Niner pushed past Darman, prying the helmet clean off, thrusting the helmet into Darman's chest.

"Great, but Zey is looking for you guys, he's busy preparing a briefing for our next mission"

"Great, another sitting with the pompous ass at the top"

"Come on boys, if we make him wait he'll send Maze after us again, and I think you all remember what happened last time" The commandos rose from their seats, falling behind Skirata.

As Darman left he gave one last glance back at Etain before he disappeared around the corner. "So what did happen last time?'

Etain turned to Jusik, hoping for an answer. "Let's just say he used Kimonean Tranq Darts"


End file.
